For Kids With Special Needs, More Places To Play

Brooklyn Fisher rolls down the ramp on the playground named for her in Pocatello, Idaho. The playground was built using accessible features so children of all abilities could play alongside each other.

Brooklyn Fisher, who has spina bifida, plays with her father, Jonny Fisher, at the playground.

John W. Poole
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Originally published on August 27, 2013 4:31 pm

Remember running around the playground when you were a kid? Maybe hanging from the monkey bars or seeing who could swing the highest?

It wasn't just a mindless energy burn. Many have called play the work of childhood. Play teaches children how to make friends, make rules and navigate relationships.

But for kids whose disabilities keep them from using playgrounds, those opportunities can be lost.

New federal requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act are changing the landscape for public playgrounds, requiring them to include equipment, materials and designs that provide children with disabilities the same play opportunities as typical children.

But as NPR sought to explore the effects of the new rules, it found that parents and advocates are making the real difference — not the federal government.

The higher cost of "inclusive" playgrounds means many local governments can't afford them. And in places that do offer the kind of shared playing experience contemplated by the ADA, a group of frustrated parents is typically behind it all.

To understand the phenomenon, NPR visited a playground in Pocatello, Idaho.

A yellow-brick road leads to its entrance. Inside there are a pretend John Deere tractor, a make-believe general store, a clock tower and a tall rocket ship.

"I get scared you might run me over," he tells her. "You go flying down those ramps."

Brooklyn says back: " 'Cause I let go of my wheels, that's why."

The wheels she's talking about are on her wheelchair.

This playground, a sprawling, colorful mix of whimsy and history, is named after her: Brooklyn's Playground.

It's designed so that children like Brooklyn, who have disabilities, can more easily play alongside typical children. "You create a place where kids of any ability are going to be playing together," Fisher says. "So now those kids with disabilities are going to be shoulder to shoulder with their peers, who they normally cannot be shoulder to shoulder with."

That's the same idea behind new federal requirements that require accessible playgrounds. Last year, the federal government made access to play areas a civil right under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"Play areas are not just places where kids have fun," says Eve Hill, a civil rights lawyer with the Justice Department, which enforces the ADA. "They are places where kids learn to interact with the world, and with each other." That places playgrounds in the same category as other civil rights touchstones.

"Recreation was one of the places where the civil rights movement started, with desegregating pools and desegregating lunch counters and movie theaters. These were not unimportant," she says.

Building Brooklyn's Playground

In Pocatello — an old railroad town bordering the Fort Hall Indian Reservation — Brooklyn's Playground sits on a flat, often windy park with a view of the Rocky Mountains.

That it's here at all goes back to a minor domestic squabble and a bump on the head.

When Brooklyn was 3 years old, her dad took her to another playground, and put her in a regular swing. "I thought she could handle it," Fisher says, "So I put her in there, and my wife said, 'I wouldn't do that.' "

Brooklyn was born with spina bifida and has difficulty controlling her muscles. With no back support, she flipped out of the swing and hit her head.

"So it was at that time that my wife said, 'We need to do this. We need to bring a playground for her, for the other kids in our community, to Pocatello.' "

Inclusive designs have been evolving for decades. Federal accessibility guidelines have been around since the 1990s. But in recent years there has been a bigger push by parents, advocates and designers, amounting to an inclusive playground movement.

"We have the therapeutic swings," Fisher says. "These have got backs, so kids that don't have that muscle tone can get in there completely, and feel safe and secure and swing."

One of the elements that legally define an accessible playground is literally the ground.

"We have ramps leading up to all the play structures. You have the solid surfaces throughout the entire playground. With walkers or wheelchairs it's very easy to go around this."

If the surface weren't smooth, if it were sand or those familiar wood chips, kids in wheelchairs might get stuck, or their parents would have to carry them.

But ramps — and other inclusive playground features — drive up costs. For example, the smooth, resilient surface at Brooklyn's Playground cost more than $150,000.

Also, at 15,000 square feet, this playground is something most municipalities wouldn't have the funding to build on their own.

So the Fishers, with the help of a local civic group, started raising money.

Over eight months, the money poured in from grants and hundreds of individual donations, bake sales and garage sales. "We raised $580,000 and it cost $560,000 so we have $20,000 in the maintenance fund," Fisher says.

And when it came time to build the playground, 3,000 people showed up to work. In a week, it was done.

But public playgrounds are generally the responsibility of local governments. So, couldn't the city of Pocatello have built it?

"Absolutely not," says Mayor Brian Blad, "not on the budget we have."

He and officials from other municipalities tell NPR that a weak economy has put many local governments in survival mode — providing basic services and not much more.

"The resources just wouldn't be there for a playground like this," Blad says. "The money is needed in so many other places."

But as of March 15, 2012, federal law requires that public play areas include wheelchair-friendly surfaces and equipment that help kids with physical challenges move around. So if a town does build or renovate a playground, it must meet specific accessibility standards. And, localities must provide their residents with "program accessibility," which means there are equal play opportunities for everyone in the community.

An Inspiring Moment

Brooklyn's Playground and the kids who use it were enough to inspire a woman who stopped in Pocatello last fall during a family road trip.

"I was definitely tearful, and a bit overwhelmed," says Amanda Bakker, who visited from Salinas, Calif. "My heart was pounding out of my chest; I had chills all over. I knew that it was a pretty pivotal moment for me."

Bakker had her daughter, Tatum, with her. Tatum, who was almost 2 at the time, has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.

"I put Tatum in a swing and kind of sat back and absorbed it all," Bakker recalls. "I looked up and saw an older child, maybe 10 or 12, a little girl, in a motorized wheelchair, up on the pirate ship, surrounded by three or four friends her age who were able-bodied children, playing and laughing."

After a minute, it sank in: "That's when I really was struck with this idea of this is what it means to be included," Bakker says.

She wanted that back home.

"It was literally the next breath where I just knew that we were going to have to find a way to make an experience like this possible in our hometown as well."

The City of Salinas approved Bakker's request to build the playground in a public park. She has raised about $400,000 so far, and expects construction to begin next month.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

Remember running around the playground when you were a kid? Maybe hanging from the monkey bars or seeing who could swing the highest? Those games were more than mindless play. They taught you how to make friends, follow rules and navigate relationships. But for children with physical disabilities, the chance to learn those lessons on a playground has been practically nonexistent, until recently.

NPR's Robert Benincasa reports on efforts to make playgrounds accessible.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN PLAYING)

ROBERT BENINCASA, BYLINE: Walk up the yellow brick road to the playground entrance, past the pretend John Deere tractor and look near the base of the towering make-believe rocket ship. You'll see seven-year-old Brooklyn Fisher playing.

BROOKLYN FISHER: And away they go...

BENINCASA: She's one of the fastest kids on the playground. Her dad, Jonny Fisher, and I watch her fly up to the top of this elaborate play structure and zip back down to the ground in a flash.

JONNY FISHER: I get scared you might run me over.

(LAUGHTER)

FISHER: You go flying down those ramps.

FISHER: 'Cause I let go of my wheels, that's why.

BENINCASA: She lets go of her wheels, the wheels on her wheelchair. This playground - a sprawling, colorful mix of whimsy and history in Pocatello, Idaho - is named after her: Brooklyn's Playground. Brooklyn's mom and dad led the effort to build it. Jonny Fisher explains that it's what's called an inclusive playground.

FISHER: You create a place where kids of any ability are going to be playing together. So now, those kids with disabilities are going to be shoulder-to-shoulder with their peers, who they normally cannot be shoulder-to-shoulder with. They'll be in an environment where they can ask questions. Kids are curious; all they want to do is just ask questions, get answers, and then they can move past the disability and they can focus on the child.

BENINCASA: Pocatello is an old railroad town in southeast Idaho. Brooklyn's Playground sits on a flat, often windy park with a view of the Rocky Mountains. There's a make-believe general store with a clock tower, a castle, a pirate ship. That it's here at all goes back to a bump on the head.

When Brooklyn was three, Jonny took her to another playground and put her in a regular swing.

FISHER: I thought she could handle it. So I put her in there and my wife said, I wouldn't do that. And I thought, oh, she'll be fine. And I started pushing her and she was doing great.

BENINCASA: But Brooklyn was born with spina bifida and she has difficulty controlling her muscles. With no back support, she flipped out of the swing and hit her head.

FISHER: And so, it was at that time that my wife said, we need to do this; we need to bring a playground for her, for the other kids in our community to Pocatello. That's when we started doing a lot of the research.

BENINCASA: Inclusive designs have been evolving for decades. But recently, parents have been expecting more from the local playground.

Can you guys show me around a little bit and show me some of the features?

FISHER: Yeah. We have the therapeutic swings. These have got backs, so kids that don't have that muscle tone can get in there completely, and feel safe and secure and swing.

BENINCASA: One of the most important parts of an accessible playground is literally the ground.

FISHER: We have ramps leading up to all the play structures. You have the solid surfaces throughout the entire playground. With walkers or wheelchairs it's very easy to go around this.

BENINCASA: It's pretty springy.

FISHER: It is springy. Yeah, if they fall, they usually don't get hurt on this.

BENINCASA: If the surface weren't smooth, if it were sand or those familiar wood chips, kids in wheelchairs would get stuck, or their parents would have to carry them. But ramps and other features of inclusive playgrounds drive up costs. The smooth, forgiving surfacing here cost more than $150,000. And, at 15,000 square feet, Pocatello's playground is something most municipalities wouldn't build on their own. So, the Fishers got the help of a local civic group and started raising funds.

Over eight months, the money poured in from grants and hundreds of individual donations; bake sales, even garage sales.

FISHER: We raised $580,000 and it cost about $560,000. So we have $20,000 in the maintenance fund.

BENINCASA: And when it came time to build the playground, 3,000 people showed up to work. In a week, it was done. It was a great grassroots effort, but aren't public playgrounds the responsibility of local governments? Couldn't the city of Pocatello have built it?

MAYOR BRIAN BLAD: Absolutely not, not on the budget that we have.

BENINCASA: That's Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad, who joined us at the playground. Blad and officials from other municipalities tell NPR that a weak economy has put many local governments in survival mode, providing basic services and not much more.

BLAD: The resources just wouldn't be there for a playground like this. The money is needed in so many other places.

BENINCASA: But, as of last spring, federal law requires that play areas be accessible. It's a civil right under the Americans With Disabilities Act. So if a town does build or renovate a playground, it must meet specific accessibility standards. And localities must provide their residents with something called program accessibility. Basically, that means equal play opportunities for everyone in the community.

EVE HILL: Play areas are not just places where kids have fun.

BENINCASA: Eve Hill is a civil rights lawyer with the Justice Department, which enforces the ADA.

HILL: They are places where kids learn to interact with the world and with each other. Recreation was one of the places where the Civil Rights Movement started, with desegregating pools and desegregating lunch counters and movie theatres. These were not unimportant.

BENINCASA: Brooklyn's playground and the kids who use it were enough to inspire a California woman, who stopped in Pocatello last fall during a family road trip.

AMANDA BAKKER: I was, I was definitely tearful and a bit overwhelmed. My heart was pounding out of my chest. I had chills all over. I knew that it was a pretty pivotal moment for me.

BENINCASA: Amanda Bakker had her daughter, Tatum, with her. Tatum was about two at the time. She also has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.

BAKKER: And I put Tatum in a swing and kind of sat back and absorbed it all, and looked up and saw an older child, maybe 10 or 12 - a little girl - in a motorized wheelchair up on the pirate ship, surrounded by three or four friends her age who were able-bodied children, playing and laughing.

BENINCASA: After a minute, it sunk in.

BAKKER: That's when I really was struck with this idea of this is what it means to be included.

BENINCASA: Bakker knew right then what she had to do when she got back home to Salinas, California.

BAKKER: It was literally the next breath where I just knew that we were going to have to find a way to make an experience like this possible in our hometown, as well.

BENINCASA: In March, the City of Salinas approved Bakker's request to build the playground in a public park. She's raised about $400,000 so far, and expects to begin construction next month.

Robert Benincasa, NPR News.

BLOCK: And with your help, NPR is compiling a national database of accessible playgrounds. To find one near you, or to add one to the database, visit NPR.org/playground. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.